Esme Shelby

Esme Shelby (1894-) was a member of the Romani Lee Family of Birmingham and the wife of John Shelby.

Biography
Esme Lee was born in 1894, the daughter of Zilpha Lee. She was born to a Romani family of 7 children, and her brothers were infamous for their attacks on Billy Kimber's bookmakers. In 1919, her mother decided that she had gotten wild and needed to be married off, so she arranged for her to marry the Peaky Blinders member John Shelby, the younger brother of gang leader Tommy Shelby. She helped to take care of John's 4 children from his previous marriage, and she also gave birth to 2 more children. She came to be unhappy with Tommy Shelby's running of the family, as she and her husband wanted to settle down rather than move to London, and Esme wanted to return to travelling on the road. Esme became a cocaine addict and stole money from the Shelby family vault to fund her addiction, and she abandoned the family and took her children on the road with her after John's murder in 1926.